Still Looking for Memories of Don McNally and the Derby Port Drive-In Theater

The Derby Port Drive-In was a popular nightspot for the young and old and everybody in between.

I'm in the final stages of writing my next book, Don “Sleepy” McNally: From Vaudeville to Drive-In Movie Pioneer. Please consider sharing positive memories about Don and/or his drive-in that stood for many years on the Derby Road where Poulin Lumber stands today – the Derby Port Drive In.
The following are some of the memories that people have sent in at this time:

Hello:
After viewing the website about your new book, so many wonderful memories came flooding back. My parents owned and operated L.G. Rocheleau's Meat and Groceries on the West Side of town for many years. They owned a panel truck (much like the one in the photo) for the business to deliver groceries around town. On Friday or Saturday in the summer it was used to crowd kids into the back and attend the Derby Drive-In Theater. We paid by the vehicle load and the vehicle would be full of drive-in patrons. It was exciting to stop at the second booth for our boxes of delicious popcorn. Then, on we would drive, with the direction of Don ( lights in hands) to our parking place. I can still smell the aroma of popcorn and hear the laughs of the kids on the playground under the screen.
In later years it was the dating venue for me and my boyfriend. We are married now with children and grandchildren of our own. How often we have discussed with them the enjoyment we shared, watching the latest movie at the Derby Drive-In Theater. I am looking forward to reading the finished product. Thank you for this bit
of memorabilia.

Jane Rocheleau Comtois
Rochester NH
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Growing up on Lake Willoughby as a child I can remember my parents taking my brother and I to the Derby-Port Drive-In. The first time that we went, just before the show began, everyone was getting out of their cars looking at their windshields. Curiously we watched trying to figure out what was happening. Then they all began cleaning their windshields. I can remember my father asking my mother what should we do? So he got out of the car and proceeded to look through the windshield and declared that it was clean and that it didn't need to be done. We all began to laugh hysterically inside the car. Since we were new to the area, this was a ritual that was foreign to us. Sure enough, the next time we went my father brought along his glass cleaner and towels to clean the windshield. This was 45 years ago and I can still remember it and laugh about it as though it happened yesterday.

Jeff Brown
Wilmington, DE

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My name is Stephen Barker and my family lived about 4 doors down from the McNally family. I actually worked for Don in the mid to late 60’s at the drive-in as a lot boy. I wore the white coveralls and directed traffic in and out of the theater. One of my jobs was to keep people from resting their feet on their brake pedals to keep the lights from flashing toward the cars parked behind them. I used to have to change the sign out front at the end of the last show and there was this big bush out front that was filled with June bugs which I hated. I jumped off this 8 foot tall platform one night because one flew into my ear.
I believe that I came to love banjo music after hearing him play his once in a while. Don always had a joke to tell, some pretty good, and some not but you always laughed because he was just a real nice man, even to us young teenage boys. He would come out into the lot and just chat with us but his chats usually had some kind of purpose to them. He wanted us to succeed even in the small things of life.
Don McNally was a good man and an example of somebody who loved people.

Don “Sleepy” McNally (center) was a lifelong showman. Among his many entertainment outlets
was as a member of the Border Ramblers.

People with memories about Don McNally and/or the drive-in can send them to me, Scott Wheeler, to P.O. Box 812, Derby, Vermont 05829 or by email to northlandjournal@gmail.com. Hopes are to have the book completed this fall.